【英语语言学习】坠入夜空

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

 

You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

 

Time now for a change of perspective on the cosmos¹. Writer and astrophysicist Adam Frank says make friends with science and the ordinary, even everyday stuff, and it will transform into the extraordinary. One way to do that is by taking a new look at the stars in the sky.

 

ADAM FRANK, BYLINE²: Stop looking up at the stars. That's no way to appreciate them. And it's no way to understand what they're trying to tell you. You see, normally, to get a view of those mysterious little points of light, you have to crane your neck. You have to tilt³ that big stone of a head back and look up. But let's face it. No one can sustain that head-craned-back position for very long. That's why the only way to really understand the truth of the stars is to lie down.

 

Now, first, you'll need to find a nice place, someplace with the darkest skies possible. It's got to be a good place to lie down, too, someplace comfortable. A wide-open field is best, but be careful about dog poop because that's going to ruin your cosmic journey right fast.

 

Then once you've settled down in your dark, quiet spot, take a long deep breath and face out. Face outwards⁴, not up. You see up is just an illusion. It's a trick of the fact that you've been living on the surface of a massive rock that's been pulling you down with its incessant⁵ gravity since the day you were born. That's why you've been fooled into thinking the stars are up there, up in the sky, high above you.

 

Now, imagine for a moment flattening⁶ the Earth into a thick wall. Imagine that this wall is not something below you but behind you. You aren't lying down anymore. You simply have your back pressed against something. And now, what do you see in front of you? Stars. And if you look back towards your feet, what do you see? Stars. And if you look to your right or to your left or in the direction of the crown of your head, what's there? Stars.

 

And here's the real kicker. That wall your back is pressed up against, what's behind it? More stars. And there it is. That is the real truth. You can now feel like vertigo⁷ as you fall into the starry⁸ multitude. These stars, they aren't twinkling lights above your heard. They're all suns. They're all vast spheres of thermonuclear burning gas. And as we have just recently learned, almost all those suns support their own families of planets. All those stars, all those worlds, they're everywhere. And with your back pressed to the wall of the Earth, you can finally feel that you are there, too, right in there midst.

 

And now comes the next big shift. Eyes aimed forward, focus on just one star. That sun, and its likely planets, lies more than 10 trillion miles away from you. But now, look at one of its neighbors. They may look close together, but that is just another deception⁹. That second star may be 10, 100 or 1,000 times farther away than its neighbor. All those stars, all their planets, they aren't pressed onto the surface of a dark upturned bowl. They're arrayed in the three dimensions of cosmic space like fireflies scattered¹⁰ across a summer field.

 

There is no up or down. You are not a resident of some city, some state or even some nation. You're not a Democrat¹¹ or a Republican, a dockworker or a doctor. Right now, right at this very moment, you are a free agent hurtling through the midst of a vast city of stars, an all-encompassing architecture of suns. So remember, face outwards into the surrounding sky because that is your true home.

 

CORNISH: Adam Frank teaches astrophysics at the University of Rochester and blogs for NPR at 13.7: Cosmos and Culture.

1 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

4 outwards   

adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形

参考例句：

• Does this door open inwards or outwards?这门朝里开还是朝外开？
• In lapping up a fur,they always put the inner side outwards.卷毛皮时，他们总是让内层朝外。

5 incessant   

adj.不停的，连续的

参考例句：

• We have had incessant snowfall since yesterday afternoon.从昨天下午开始就持续不断地下雪。
• She is tired of his incessant demands for affection.她厌倦了他对感情的不断索取。

6 flattening   

n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词

参考例句：

• Flattening of the right atrial border is also seen in constrictive pericarditis. 右心房缘变平亦见于缩窄性心包炎。
• He busied his fingers with flattening the leaves of the book. 他手指忙着抚平书页。

7 vertigo   

n.眩晕

参考例句：

• He had a dreadful attack of vertigo.他忽然头晕得厉害。
• If you have vertigo it seems as if the whole room is spinning round you.如果你头晕，就会觉得整个房间都旋转起来

8 starry   

adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的

参考例句：

• He looked at the starry heavens.他瞧着布满星星的天空。
• I like the starry winter sky.我喜欢这满天星斗的冬夜。

9 deception   

n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计

参考例句：

• He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception.他承认曾与人合谋骗取财产。
• He was jailed for two years for fraud and deception.他因为诈骗和欺诈入狱服刑两年。

10 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

11 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。